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Spanish Proper Conductor

By

Barbara Jepson

Nov. 5, 2013 4:40 p.m. ET

When it comes to booking performers, the classical-music industry is as prone to typecasting as Hollywood: One soloist is promoted as a new-music specialist; another, as an expert interpreter of the core German repertoire.

So far, rising conductor Pablo Heras-Casado has proved harder to pigeonhole. The 35-year-old Spaniard makes his Metropolitan Opera debut with Verdi's "Rigoletto" on Monday; tours with Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Paris-based new-music group, in January; and leads the Freiburg Baroque...